vote leave...here’s why

Published:11:30Wednesday 22 June 2016

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You’ve probably been told by now that the European Union is good for Britain: it creates jobs, strengthens our economy and gives us global reach.

But as anyone who runs a small business will tell you, Britain is being held back by the EU. Because whilst we are the fifth largest economy in the world, unnecessary regulations costing £600 million every week prevents small businesses from growing and taking on more staff. And that’s despite the fact that just six per cent of UK firms actually trade with the EU.

EU employment law, for example, means our HGV divers have to be re-trained every five years on the same subject. And because our customers cannot afford to cover this extra cost, just in this one instance it has cost another £3,200.00 per driver. We cannot cope and in the last three years the number of people we employ has been cut from 105 to 60. If it weren’t for the EU, many of those people would still have their job.

We should be making it easier, not harder for our businesses to succeed. After all, small businesses are the job creators in our country – they employ more than 15 million people in Britain today.

On June 23, we have a once in a lifetime opportunity to change the future of our country by leaving the undemocratic, corrupt and failing European superstrate.

If we leave the EU, not only would we be able to make our own laws to help businesses to grow and thrive, but we would be in control of our country. That means we would be able to trade freely with other countries, and not just the EU. As a member of the EU, we are prevented from negotiating our own free trade deals with non EU countries, meaning that businesses like mine lose out on emerging markets such as China and India.

But it’s not just about our economy. Taking back control also means that we can have an immigration system that helps us to plan for the public services we all rely on. By having an open border with almost 500 million people, this places huge strain on our hospitals, schools and homes. Only by leaving the EU can we control that demand and have a fair immigration system where we decide who can come to this country.

But here’s the real gain from leaving: every week we send £350 million to Brussels just to be a member of the EU - half of that money is spent on other countries and the other half we have no control over. But if we leave, we would take back control of that money to spend on the things we care about here, like the NHS.

It makes sense to take back control. And on Thursday June 23, all of us have the chance to do that by voting to leave the EU.